Happily Ever After
by R. Reynolds
Summary: Holly had always thought that 'Happily ever after,' was a phrase for lovesick people who were momentarily content to pine after what they couldn't have." Because Holly didn't believe in happily ever after.


_D'arvit_, thought Captain Holly Short to herself as the wind whistled around her. She had just come to terms with a realization that scared her. Perhaps she had known it all along. Perhaps this was not a sudden revelation, but rather, something that she had simply acknowledged after stowing it away in the dark recesses of her brain where her mind seldom wandered. Maybe this should not have been as surprising, or as catastrophic, a turn of events as it had been. Briefly, she entertained the idea of what _could_ have been if she had seen it coming sooner. But only for a moment. Time was of the essence if she were to successfully achieve what she was trying to do, and she quite simply could not afford to wonder what might have happened if she had recognized the signs.

_5…_

Finding out that she was in love would have been difficult under normal circumstances, but realizing that she was in love with the late Artemis Fowl was in an entirely different league of impossible to fathom scenarios. Perhaps she would have been able to handle a life of seeing what she so desperately wanted but couldn't have, but then he had been snatched away by the unforgiving mortality of humanity, and it was far more than she could ever bear. Her friends and colleagues had told her that life would go on, that soon, the pain that she felt at the loss of the Mud Man would subside. She had nodded and agreed with them, but inside, she knew that she could never forget. Every day after his death, her heart had ripped open just a little more every time that she thought of him until she had become nothing more but an empty shell of her former self. Holly was not willing to live like that, dying a little bit every day. It was better this way. That much she had convinced herself of.

_4…_

Holly had never been one to believe in happy endings. She had always thought that "And they lived happily ever after," was just a phrase to fool lovesick people who were momentarily content to pine after what they could not have. She had never allowed herself to indulge in such fantasies, not even as a child. She knew that life was not fair.

_3…_

Hot gusts of air whistled past Holly's ears. She closed her eyes, relishing the sensation of having all of her worries whipped away on the warm winds coming from one of the chutes in the Tara shuttle port. Soon she would have the one lasting mistake of her life erased as well.

_2…_

She wondered what Artemis would have said if he knew what she was about to do. Would he have told her how stupid she was being? Would he have been shocked? Would he have cared? So many questions that she would never know the answer to…

_1…_

Finally, a guard turned around. Under different circumstances, she might have found the look of surprise that so slowly crossed his face humorous. But these were not different circumstances. His hand went to the holster on his hip, but Holly knew that by the time he reached his Neutrino, it would be far too late to stop her.

On the last, pivotal step, Holly faltered. Was this what she really wanted? Did she want to end her life like this? But there was no time for questioning if she were to go through with this. Because she was afraid that if she questioned, she would find that this was not what she had hoped for. And she simply could not wait any longer if she had any hopes of accomplishing what she had started. Her faltering lasted only a second before her foot took the necessary movement into thin air. Her entire body fell forward as the laws of gravity claimed hold of it. Distantly, she wondered what death would feel like. She did not have to wait long to find out.

Because for Captain Holly Short of the LEP, there was no such thing as happily ever after.

**A/N: Well, how did you all like it? Be sure to tell me in a review. And remember, I can see how many people read this story. I expect the same number of reviews. They really boost my self esteem and make me write more. Constructive criticism, and even just plain old criticism, is highly appreciated. By the way, this is the revised version of the story. The original was much worse (I wrote it while I was half asleep…).**


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